KPMG has more than half of the $4 billion of claims on MF Global UK

LONDON | By Luke Jeffs

LONDON MF Global UK's MFGLQ.PK administrator KPMG has recovered more than $2.5 billion (1.5 billion pounds) of the $4 billion of claims it expects from the defunct broker's British clients and creditors.

KPMG said in an emailed statement that it has recovered $1.6 billion for general creditors' claims against the broker and $923 million for clients.

"We have seen some substantial progress made since our last progress report six months ago," said KPMG's Richard Heis, who pointed out that the sum recovered for general claims had doubled over the past six months.

The administrator expects $3.9 billion of claims in total, $900 million of which have already been agreed by KPMG.

The firm has so far returned $180 million to clients, up from only $92 million six months ago, it said in Thursday's scheduled update.

KPMG was appointed administrator to the British arm of MF Global immediately after the U.S. futures broker collapsed on October 31 last year because investors were spooked by its exposure to European sovereign debt.

The case has become a political firestorm in the United States, where investigators are trying to identify the source of an estimated $1.6 billion hole in customer trading accounts.

On Monday former MF Global customers asked a court for permission to subpoena the broker's executives, including former Chief Executive Jon Corzine, who was blamed for the firm's collapse in a congressional report this month.

The Commodity Customer Coalition, an advocate for trader customers who lost money when MF Global went under, wants to subpoena Corzine, Chief Financial Officer Henri Steenkamp, Chief Operating Officer Bradley Abelow and others, according to court papers filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. (Editing by David Goodman)